Various vehicle systems and industrial machinery have engine control units that control engine components affiliated with power generation. The engine components may include engines, motors, pumps, turbochargers, alternators, radiators, and other devices or machines. The engine control unit may run tests on the engine components in order to ensure that the engine components are operating properly, such as within designated safety and performance standards. Some tests may be run periodically as a health check, and other tests may be run at specific times, such as when a replacement engine component has been installed in the power generation system. In the context of a rail vehicle, the engine control unit may be located on a locomotive and may control components that generate power for motoring efforts of the locomotive as well as for auxiliary loads, such as heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, lighting, and the like. Alternatively, in the context of a marine vessel, the engine control unit may be located on a marine propulsion vessel and may control components that generate power for motoring efforts (e.g., driving an engine shaft, spinning a turbine, powering a generator, etc.) of the propulsion vessel as well as for auxiliary loads.
Various different tests may be performed by the engine control unit based on a prompt from an operator. In known engine control units, a display of the engine control unit provides very limited information to an operator regarding the tests. For example, the display may only provide a title or name of the tests, with no additional details about the tests such as the purpose for each test, the pre-requisites necessary in order to perform the test, the engine components that are manipulated during the test, and the expectations during the test (e.g., what alarms to expect and/or how the affected engine components are projected to be operated). Furthermore, some engine control units only display the titles of certain tests that are available to be performed under the current operating conditions of the power-generating system. Therefore, if the current operating conditions do not satisfy the pre-requisites for a given test, then the title of that test is not displayed to the operator and not accessible for selection. Since test information is so limited, an operator that desires to run a specific test would have to consult an outside resource, such as a hard copy test manual, in order to ascertain information about the tests. However, hard copy test manuals are inefficient as the manuals cannot tailor the way that information is presented to an operator in order to make relevant information more easily accessible. Furthermore, hard copy manuals cannot provide information that is specific to the current operations of the engine components. Additionally, the hard copy manuals can be misplaced, damaged over time, and/or outdated.